As shameful as he was, equally shameful was REUTERS whose 'reporter' rushed in to change the subject and rescue the State Dept.

Let's jump in to where Chickakryan attempts to get answers to her questions.

QUESTION: I have one more question on Turkey, please.MR KIRBY: Okay, go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you. Well, you were saying that it’s up to
Turkey and Iraq to figure out the situation with the uninvited Turkish
troops. But the U.S. does take upon itself to invite forces from other
countries into Iraq and in Syria. Ash Carter was telling Congress
yesterday that he personally reached out to 40 countries asking them to
commit special ops for the fight and other support. The Iraqi parliament
is concerned that their country is becoming this ground where different
countries do what they want. The Iraqi parliament’s Security and
Defense Committee is calling for the review or cancelation of the U.S.
security agreement with Iraq. What does the U.S. do to address their
concerns?
MR KIRBY: Address whose concerns?
QUESTION: The Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee that is
now calling to review or cancel the agreement with the U.S.
MR KIRBY: I haven’t seen those reports, ma’am. We continue to
work with the Iraqi Government. The troops that Secretary Carter
referred to, that decision was done in full coordination and cooperation
with the Iraqi Government. If you’re trying to suggest that somehow
U.S. military assistance against ISIL is untoward or being done without
full coordination with the Iraq Government, it’s just a completely
baseless charge. And I don’t think it’s worth having any more
discussions about it.
QUESTION: But you’re saying – are you saying that you’re not
aware of the Iraqi parliament’s – this Security and Defense Committee’s
initiative that they want to --
MR KIRBY: I haven’t seen that, no. I haven’t seen that.
QUESTION: Okay. What – the situation where the U.S. invites forces --
MR KIRBY: I’m going to give you just one more, honestly, and then that’s it. Okay?
QUESTION: Sure.
MR KIRBY: Go ahead.
QUESTION: The situation where the U.S. invites forces to Iraq
and the U.S. is leading this coalition, but when something goes wrong,
the U.S. says it’s none of our business, like with the Turkish troops.
Let – you have to figure it out between yourselves. Should it be of no
concern to Iraq?
MR KIRBY: Should what be of no concern? I love these questions
that are 10 minutes long then I’m supposed to get the grain of it out
of there. Should what be of no concern?
QUESTION: The fact that when something – you have this
cooperation, you have this agreement, but when something goes wrong, the
U.S. says it’s none of our business, like with what’s happening with
the Turkish troops.
MR KIRBY: Oh, come on. Again, another ridiculous question. When have we ever said it’s none of our business?
QUESTION: You are saying that about the Turkish troops.
MR KIRBY: What I’m – no. No, I’m not. I’m saying that – I’ll
say it again, okay? We want this to be worked out bilaterally between
Turkey and Iraq. And the way you’re trying to twist all of this around
to make it look like we’re doing something nefarious or that we’re –
we’ve got some sort of inappropriate relationships here, I mean, it’s
just so silly. And I can’t believe --
QUESTION: Well, am I really twisting it? You – have you --
MR KIRBY: I can’t believe, honestly, that you aren’t
embarrassed to ask these questions. You have to be looking at these
questions and almost laughing to yourself, don’t you? I mean, they’re
absolutely crazy.
QUESTION: So --
MR KIRBY: So we are working very closely with the Abadi
government, right. We are working inside a coalition of 65 nations – 65
nations that have signed up to go after ISIL in Iraq and in Syria – let
me finish. You’ve had your moment. Sixty-five nations. And what we have
said from the very beginning – I said it when I was at the Pentagon in
uniform – is that we want any action against ISIL inside Iraq,
specifically, to be done with full cooperation and coordination with the
Iraqi Government and with their sovereign permission. That hasn’t
changed one whit. Now there’s this dispute between Turkey and Iraq over
the presence of a small number of troops, okay?
QUESTION: Should --
MR KIRBY: And we – I’ve said – I said it over the last several
days and I’ll say it again: Nothing’s changed about our position about
the sovereign nature of Iraq and the fact that troops operating against
ISIL inside Iraq needs to be done with the Iraqi Government’s
permission. And we’ve stated that publicly, we’ve stated that privately,
to every member of the coalition. Nothing’s changed about that.
QUESTION: Sir --
MR KIRBY: And we want Turkey and Iraq to work this out, and
they are. You are trying to find a way to make this some big divisive
issue, and even the Turks and the Iraqis know that it’s not and they’re
working their way through it. So let’s let them work their way through
it and let the rest of everybody keep focusing on ISIL, which is what we
should do, and which, by the way, the Russians aren’t doing.
QUESTION: If I may – if I may – if I may --
QUESTION: Is it – I’m sorry, should I not – should I not ask --
QUESTION: If I may – if I may --
QUESTION: Should I not be asking what the U.S. assessment of Turkey’s actions is?
MR KIRBY: You – ma’am – I’m going take this one, Arshad, then I’m going to come to you. You can – you can --
QUESTION: Should I not be asking that question? Exactly which question should I be embarrassed about, sir?
MR KIRBY: You can ask me whatever you want. I’m just stunned
that you’re not embarrassed by some of the questions you ask. And I
notice that --
QUESTION: Exactly which question?
MR KIRBY: I notice that RT very rarely asks any tough
questions of their own government. So you can ask whatever you want.
That’s the beauty of this setting, right, here at the State Department.
You can come in here and ask me whatever you want, and you can be as –
just as challenging as you want to be and accusatory in your questions –
some of those today, absolutely ridiculous. You can do that here in the
United States, but I don’t see you --
QUESTION: Which question was ridiculous, sir?
MR KIRBY: I don’t see you asking those same questions of your own government about ISIL in Syria.
QUESTION: Which of my questions was ridiculous?
MR KIRBY: And I would love to see those questions get asked.Arshad.QUESTION: I’d like to switch to just saying one quick word about Barry Schweid.

Arshad is periodically selected as the go-to when the State Dept wants
to leak and Arshad, like a declawed house tabby, earns those leaks
(billed as "exclusives" and "scoops") by refusing to ever press the
State Dept or practice actual journalism.

Now let's go to John Kirby's stupidity. One more time:

QUESTION: Thank you. Well, you were saying that it’s up to Turkey and
Iraq to figure out the situation with the uninvited Turkish troops. But
the U.S. does take upon itself to invite forces from other countries
into Iraq and in Syria. Ash Carter was telling Congress yesterday that
he personally reached out to 40 countries asking them to commit special
ops for the fight and other support. The Iraqi parliament is concerned
that their country is becoming this ground where different countries do
what they want. The Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee is
calling for the review or cancelation of the U.S. security agreement
with Iraq. What does the U.S. do to address their concerns?MR KIRBY: Address whose concerns?QUESTION: The Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee
that is now calling to review or cancel the agreement with the U.S.MR KIRBY: I haven’t seen those reports, ma’am. We continue to
work with the Iraqi Government. The troops that Secretary Carter
referred to, that decision was done in full coordination and cooperation
with the Iraqi Government. If you’re trying to suggest that somehow
U.S. military assistance against ISIL is untoward or being done without
full coordination with the Iraq Government, it’s just a completely
baseless charge. And I don’t think it’s worth having any more
discussions about it.QUESTION: But you’re saying – are you saying that you’re not
aware of the Iraqi parliament’s – this Security and Defense Committee’s
initiative that they want to --MR KIRBY: I haven’t seen that, no. I haven’t seen that.

SPUTNIK reports:The Security and Defense Committee of the Iraqi Parliament has called
for a review or cancellation of an agreement with the United States
on security over Washington’s lack of a clear reaction to the worsening
situation in the country, committee member Hamid al-Mutlaq told Sputnik
on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, we were aware of this.

Thursday afternoon, the US State Dept is still ignorant of it?

John Kirby looks like a stupid fool.

His ignorance does not speak well for himself or for his department.

How can they counter terrorism or practice diplomacy if they can't even
follow the news cycle? If 32 hours after a major bit of news makes it
into the cycle, they still don't know what's going on, what does that
say about their knowledge base or their efforts to carry out their core
job functions?

John Kirby should curb his inner bitch and instead apply himself towards following the news cycle.

Not only was it in the news Wednesday morning, it is major news that the
State Dept should have been following: A member of the Iraqi
Parliament's Security and Defense Committee is stating that the
Committee is going to review the security agreement with the US and the
State Dept is unaware of that?

This is further proof that the State Dept is unable to carry out their
diplomatic mission in Iraq because they've mistaken themselves for an
annex of the Defense Dept (Kirby, after all, is the former Pentagon
spokesperson -- so much for rewarding diplomacy or career diplomats at
State).

Whose war on women?

John Kirby decided to go full on bitch and, it's worth noting, he's never done that to a man.

But, on the State Dept payroll, he thought he had the right to attack
and attempt to humiliate a journalist for asking a question.

That sort of sexism certainly applied at the Defense Dept which -- all
these years later -- still can't honestly address violence against
women, let alone harassment.

What a wonderful way to be an ambassador to the world: Kirby's attack on Gayane Chichakyan and
attempt to humiliate her -- and to use humiliation to try to silence
her -- on the world stage with the whole world watching.

That's not diplomacy.

It's also unacceptable.

There is also the issue of the revived tensions between the US
government and the Russian government. In that environment, the world
doesn't need a bitchy US spokesperson attacking a Russian reporter.

Before we close this topic out, let's zoom in on this part of the exchange:

QUESTION: The situation where the U.S. invites forces to Iraq and the
U.S. is leading this coalition, but when something goes wrong, the U.S.
says it’s none of our business, like with the Turkish troops. Let – you
have to figure it out between yourselves. Should it be of no concern to
Iraq?MR KIRBY: Should what be of no concern? I love these questions
that are 10 minutes long then I’m supposed to get the grain of it out of
there. Should what be of no concern?QUESTION: The fact that when something – you have this
cooperation, you have this agreement, but when something goes wrong, the
U.S. says it’s none of our business, like with what’s happening with
the Turkish troops.MR KIRBY: Oh, come on. Again, another ridiculous question. When have we ever said it’s none of our business?

She's not wrong at all.

The US has done that repeatedly.

The State Dept has been one of the worst offenders.

Oh, we don't want to get into the oil disputes in Iraq -- but the central government out of Baghdad is right!!!!!!

Do you now how many times Victoria Nuland pulled that crap when she was spokesperson for the State Dept?

(To Nuland's credit, she never tried to shame a reporter -- or serve her up for public ridicule -- just for asking a question.)

Or how about the Hawaija massacre?

On one hand, you had peaceful demonstrators staging a sit-in.

On the other hand, you had the forces Nouri al-Maliki sent in to surround the square and attack the protesters.